Your joints are achy, you want to work out but do not want to take pain medications. What can you do?Typically you want to hit achy joints from three angles.

First and Foremost:You must check the alignment of the joints in the extremities and in the spine. If the alignment is off, it places undo stress on different areas of your body creating wear and tear that can lead to degeneration and arthritis of the joint.

Secondly: You must reduce pro-inflammatory foods and chemicals in your body. Arthritis, injury and food intolerance are common culprits. Reduce inflammation causing foods like alcohol, sugars, trans-fats, margarine, canola, soy, corn, safflower, sunflower and peanut oils and foods like flours; while increasing anti-inflammatory foods such as starchy vegetables, dark leafy greens, berries and cold-water fish. Grass-fed beef is actually comparable to fish, while commodity beef is highly inflammatory. This relates to milk and butter as well, so grass-fed is always best. Stay with oils such as fish, coconut, egg yolks, avocados and nuts.

Thirdly: You must look for muscle knots, trigger points and facial blocks around the joints in question. Look for highly-irritable spots in the muscles. To release apply moderate pressure to the spot with your fingers, or massage the area for 10-30 seconds to release the muscles. Most patients I work with experience immediate reduction in join pain after easing the trigger points

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Dr. Kim Maziarz Carlucci, DC

I have been a chiropractor for since 1996 but an athlete since I played baseball with the boys in the early pee wee leagues. I continued with sports throughout my high school career: softball, basketball, skiing and competitive horseback riding. In chiropractic school I was introduced to functional exercise and structural rehabilitation and continue to do this type of exercise to this day with great success. I have now been trained in Functional Medicine. Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.